High strength, heat-resisting structural materials are being intensively developed for commercial and other uses. Fiber reinforcement of glass, glass-ceramic, ceramic, and thermoplastic materials is a commonly practiced technique for adding strength and toughness t these materials; broadening their applications. Yet, improved production techniques are fervently sought. Present techniques include press molding, injection molding, and plasma spraying; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,412,854, 4,786,304, and 4,769,195, respectively (incorporated herein by reference).
Press molding which uses a hot press to infiltrate woven and/or non-woven fiber preforms with a slurry, is impractical for complex or hollow articles. Injection molding, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,304, capable of producing hollow and complex articles by transferring a heated matrix material to a cavity holding a fiber preform, is costly due to the pre-alignment of fibers. Plasma spraying can be used to produce hollow articles, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,195, by jetting glass powder onto fibers, creating a preform. The preform is then molded to the desired form, and subjected to thermal molding. Another method of producing hollow composite articles involves winding a metallic glass filament around a mandrel, applying a liquid resin to embed the filament therein, and removing the mandrel (U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,618 incorporated herein by reference).
Although techniques for producing hollow composite articles exist, improved techniques are sought. The objective of the present invention is to introduce a new technique for the production of hollow composite articles which comprises the utilization of a vapor deposition process.